RIT faculty senate and administrators gather in Dubai for Global Governance Summit

Representatives from RIT’s campuses in the U.S., China, Croatia, Dubai, and Kosovo recently gathered in Dubai to increase communication and collaboration around RIT’s academic policies and shared governance model. RIT’s fourth Global Governance Summit took place Feb. 27-28, the first since 2019.

The summit brought together 20 representatives from the five RIT campuses and focused on three main topics: global campus governance structures, administrative roles in governance, and improving collaboration through shared governance.

“Over the past 25 years of global engagement, we have made extraordinary progress in ensuring the voices of our global campus communities are included in the policy making and decisions that affect their students, faculty, and staff,” said James Myers, RIT’s associate provost for international education and global programs. “This summit is part of RIT’s well-established commitment to a model of shared governance that ensures the inclusion of all community members—including those at our global campuses.”

Faculty Senate Chair Atia Newman, an associate professor in RIT’s School of Film and Animation, said she hopes she and her fellow participants can use what they learned at the summit to continue to support interactions between campuses.

“From a faculty perspective, this summit has played an essential role in ensuring that our values of shared governance continue to evolve with the growing needs of a global campus,” said Newman. “As faculty, we take pride in our role as curators of curricular excellence at RIT, and want to recognize the excellence of our programs and faculty abroad.”

For more information about global faculty governance, go to the RIT Global website.